illegal shitposting is an epidemic, but the problem is not the shitposting itself, but rather the poor socioeconomic conditions and the lack of a social net to accommodate for the conditions that lead people to shitposting.

There is a little mixed data on the impact minimum wage has on the economy. I read an article recently about the Seattle minimum wage, and how it has helped raise average workers wages but also hasn't helped low wage earners at the same time. Other research shows it actually helps the economy by increasing the spending ability of consumers. To your point, I think it's more political than anything. "Vote for me, fools, and I'll get you a raise at work!"

Personally I think the issue is mostly about wage not matching up to increase in cost of living, especially since the housing market went crazy over the last 5 years or so. (actually longer, but it's actually gone really unaffordable for most everybody in that time)

And also about people not being able to find work on a full time basis, which meant that businesses could get away with not providing a lot of benefits that full-timers get (e.g. severance pay, dental/vision care, etc)

I think if the whole thing is primarily motivated by getting votes, rather than improving people's quality of life, it doesn't speak well for the kind of moves the current government will make in the future. The timeline proposed also seems very hasty, which is a little concerning about how much thought was actually put into this. tbh I'd feel a lot better if the current provincial government's track record wasn't so bad.

And $11.40 CAD/h isn't that much for Toronto/GTA, mostly because of the increase in housing costs, and I don't think most people making minimum wage are working full time hours.

IDK But houses are waaay too much money... so are apartments, so are food... everything is absolute garbage and suicide is the only way out

i mean the world is ruined, and there is now ay out of the spiralling descent that will elad to the end of human life.... the economy will crash, governments will fall to anarchy, then the new currency will be the pure fact of living.... families will eat their youngest for fun, and people will burn down towers because they have no soul.....

WOW JUST KIDDING HAHA ............... (if this happens then i called it first)

brought to you by

Teenage Angst & existentialism... also a lack of optimism or trust/faith in humanity!

So the fascinating thing about the housing market is that it has only changed dramatically in urban areas. The prevailing theory is that as baby boomers are getting to a retirement age they are selling houses in suburban areas and moving to urban areas. Since demand in urban areas is also driven by a younger demographic ("millennials"), the result is a surge in housing pricing in cities like Toronto. But if you look in more suburban areas, prices have remained steady or actually have gone down in some instances.

In addition to the demand spike, I think we've also talked about the housing supply deficit in many urban areas that resulted from NIMBY - "Not In MY Back Yard" - this concept that people favor additional urban housing, just not near where they live because they don't want their particular neighborhood to change. An ironic problem born out of liberal elitism. You might argue this is part of the reason Donald Trump was elected President of the United States.

I live in an area that's experiencing a lot of growth in the tech industry, so there are literally more people who need housing than there is housing. The result is a combination of rapidly climbing housing costs (even in suburban areas) (Luckily, I own (Well, technically, the bank owns, and I'm paying them back) my house, so I don't have to worry about increased rent or anything), and a lot of work for construction crews. There are actually concerns in some places that the infrastructure, especially water, might not be able to keep up with the growth. We live in interesting times.

Fun factWe have less than 3k users on the Forum™ now due to me deleting a whole lot of spam users (User who haven't been active and had 0 posts). We had more than 55k when I first started. I believe about 40k+ of those users where registered in 2013.